A familiar face to Berks County and Anthracite Region football fans will be taking over as head football coach at Hamburg Area School District.
Hamburg School directors hired former Blue Mountain head coach Chuck Kutz as the eighth coach in Hamburg Area’s 47-year football history during the Jan. 25 school board meeting.
Kutz, who compiled an 81-45 record with five District 11-AAA titles and seven playoff appearances in 11 years at the helm of the Eagles, last coached in 2008.
“At that time I had three young daughters who were in their formulative years,” Kutz said. “Now they’re in high school and middle school and involved in their own activities.
“The time was right to get back in (to coaching).”
Kutz, who was hired on Jan. 11 as a middle school guidance counselor, said that he was very impressed with the administrators and the staff at Hamburg.
Hamburg Area athletic director Aaron Menapace was also impressed with Kutz.
“Chuck Kutz is one of the finest leaders of young men Pennsylvania has to offer,” Menapace said. “Chuck has demonstrated success as a head football coach and more importantly is a person of the highest character ideals.”
Kutz has stayed involved with the high school football scene as a broadcaster for high school football games.
“I’ve seen a lot of teams and different styles, especially in the playoffs,” Kutz said. “(Being an analyst) is like scouting and has kept me involved.”
Kutz replaces Damian Buggy who accepted the head coaching position in Minersville after two seasons on Hawk Hill.
Last year the Hawks were 5-5 in the regular season after winning only one game the previous season and qualified for the District 3-AA playoffs.
“I have great respect for coach Buggy,” Kutz said. “I’m fortunate to have two assistants from my past coming with me and they’ll merge with (current) coaches.”
Jim Shields, who was Kutz’ offensive coordinator during the first half of Kutz’ stay at Blue Mountain, will be on the staff. Shields was also the offensive coordinator at Pottsville when the Tide reached the PIAA Class AAA championship game in 2005 and 2006.
Harry Myers was Kutz’ defensive coordinator at Blue Mountain and will be part of the staff at Hamburg Area.
“The staff he is assembling is equal to that of any similar size school and is a group of men committed to teaching our boys skills which will enable them to be champions for life,” Menapace said. “We could not have had this turn out better than it did.”